Title

Author

Date of Graduation

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Civil Engineering

Advisor

Hale, Micah

Reader

Bernhardt, Michelle

Second Reader

Prinz, Gary

Abstract

Due to the scale of concrete production throughout the world, there is potential for implementing methodologies that reduce the environmental impact of concrete processes. One intriguing solution is utilizing concrete wash water as mixing water. Concrete wash water is the water created by concrete production. If wash water can be reused, this would provide a safe disposal of the water and save millions of gallons of potable water per year (Indiana, 2014). For this to become a realistic option for concrete plants, it is important that the wash water does not decrease the compressive strength of concrete, otherwise the cost of additional cementitious materials to offset the compressive strength decrease will outweigh any financial benefit of recycling the wash water. Therefore, the purpose of this research project is to examine the effects of wash water on the compressive strength of concrete. In this program, 4 different concrete mix designs were developed; two using cement as the only cementitious material, and two with 25% of the cement replaced with fly ash. For both mix designs, three batches were mixed and tested, and with each batch the mixing water source was the only variable. The mixing water sources used were tap water, wash water collected at noon, and wash water collected in the evening. Although other research is necessary to affirm the conclusion, the results tentatively showed that using wash water as concrete mixing water has little effect on the compressive strength of concrete.